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Shortage of skilled labor reaches wide

Published: Sunday, September 8, 2013 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, September 6, 2013 at 6:40 p.m.

A national survey of construction firms has found the shortage of skilled labor stretches far beyond Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

The Associated General Contractors of America polled nearly 700 construction firms nationwide and found that some 74 percent of firms responding were having difficulty finding qualified workers to fill “key spots” and feared the labor shortage is getting worse.

It’s a complaint familiar to the area as each education roundtable discussion sees oil and gas service companies line up to bemoan the lack of four-year trained workers ready to take over as the baby boom generation retires.

Reminders of the need for such workers are along many street corners in the form of “now hiring” signs from Houma-based Gulf Island Fabrication. Those that follow Lockport-based Bollinger Shipyards on Facebook will also notice regular posts seeking people to fill opens spots.

“Many construction firms are already having a hard time finding qualified workers and expect construction labor shortages will only get worse,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America.

Of those reporting such difficulty, some 53 percent said the trouble is finding workers to fill professional positions, such as supervisors, estimators and engineers.

“You can’t take a guy with a high school diploma or less and grow them from within. ... That is not the situation anymore. Technology has just gotten too advanced,” state Sen. Norby Chabert, R-Houma, said at a roundtable education discussion in July.

Eighty-six percent of respondents said they expect it will remain difficult or get harder to find qualified craft workers while 72 percent say the market for professional positions will remain hard or get worse, according to the survey.

Seventy-four percent of respondents report there are not enough qualified craft workers available to meet future demand while 49 percent said there weren’t enough construction professionals available, the survey says.

About 50 percent of Louisiana businesses claimed to have trouble finding project managers and supervisors. About 43 percent in Louisiana predicted it would become even harder to recruit qualified professionals while 29 percent said it would remain difficult.

About 53 percent said the labor need of qualified construction professionals over the coming years will not be met by the “local pipeline.”

“We have a good survey program at Nicholls (State University), but you have to go to Lafayette, New Orleans or Baton Rouge to be an engineer,” said Oneil Malbrough, executive director of Coastal Services Environment and Infrastructure at engineering firm CBI, formerly Shaw Coastal said in July.

Malbrough said his company has an 80 percent better worker retention rate when its employees complete internships with the company during their junior and senior years of college.

“But we can’t intern in Terrebonne. In Terrebonne, where our main office is, we can’t intern people there because you can’t go to school in Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans and intern. So we have no interns. So we are losing ground in our area as business picks up,” he said.

Curt Eysink, executive director of the Workforce Commission, addressed the May meeting of the South Central Industrial Association and gave a positive outlook for Louisiana if the state can find a way to educate enough workers.

“We are seeing today a business climate in Louisiana that I have not seen in my 30-plus years. We are seeing investment from outside the state in Louisiana that we have never seen before,” Eysink said.

Eysink said the commission projects 2.2 percent growth statewide through 2014 and about 1.7 percent annual growth through 2020.

Houma-Thibodaux’s outlook for 2020 is 2.4 percent growth, which Eysink called “tremendous.”

Eysink said gains in job availability make it vital to educate workers to fill the new jobs and positions of retirees that require education and skill.

The state is looking to add around 29,800 jobs per year and needs another 48,000 to replace retiring workers per year, he said.

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